Staff

Toby Leavitt Executive Director

Toby oversees all aspects of the Shakespeare Festival's programs. She did her undergraduate work at the University of Chicago, and received her Masters from the University of Chicago Business School in 1997. Prior to joining the Festival in 1998, she served as General Manager for Chicago's Court Theatre. She oversaw their financial growth from a $1.6 million to $2.8 million annual budget, guided the theatre in developing a 5-year strategic plan to become the National Center for Classic Theatre, and managed the ensuing strategic growth of the organization. Prior to her four years with the Court, she worked at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago as Senior Editor and Director of Marketing Communications. Her accomplishments in audience development have been recognized by the Arts Marketing Center of Chicago and the Marshall Fields Foundation. She has served as a management consultant for Chicago Opera Theater, the Piven Theater Workshop, and Roadworks Theater Company, and has served as a panelist for the San Francisco Art Commission's Cultural Equity Initiatives Grant program.

Rebecca J. Ennals Artistic Director

Rebecca has been on the staff of the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival since 2002 and Artistic Director since 2012. She holds a BA in English and Theatre from Scripps College and an MFA in performance from U.C. Davis. She has taught and written curriculum at the elementary through college levels. As a director and teaching artist, she has worked locally with Marin Theatre Company, PlayGround, Napa Valley Shakespeare Festival, Pear Theatre, Napa Valley Repertory Theatre, Peninsula Youth Theatre, Los Altos Youth Theatre and Shakespeare At Stinson. Ms. Ennals has directed eight productions for the Festival's Shakespeare On Tour in-school touring program, six productions for the Civic Arts Stage Company program in Pleasanton, and four productions for Free Shakespeare in the Park. She also regularly writes the Festival’s Green Shows and conceived and executed the 2012 pop-up Shakespeare project "30 Days of Free Shakespeare in the Parklet" and the 2017 project “35 Famous Speeches in 35 Famous Places.” She is currently developing a new musical of As You Like It with The Kilbanes and Phil Wong, to be produced in Summer 2019.

Phil Lowery Education Director

Phil is a director, actor, stage manager, teacher, and a proud member of the SF Shakes Resident Artist company, through which he has taught hundreds of children and teens in our Bay Area Shakespeare Camps and Tailor-Made Residencies since 2007. He has performed with Shakespeare on Tour (Macbeth) and Free Shakespeare in the Park (The Taming of the Shrew, Romeo and Juliet and The Winter’s Tale), and with other Bay Area companies, including Shotgun Players, Central Works Ensemble and Lamplighters Music Theatre, where he is on staff. Phil has directed musicals, operas and operettas around the Bay Area for companies such as Altarena Playhouse, Berkeley Opera, Pocket Opera, Lyric Theatre of San Jose, and Lamplighters.

John Western Marketing Director

John has been a fan of Free Shakespeare in the Park since its inception in 1983 with The Tempest. He is responsible for the marketing and advertising of all Festival programs. He received his B.A. from Cleveland State University and continuing education credits from the advertising program at the University of California at Berkeley's School of Extended Learning. Mr. Western has been on the Festival staff since 1998, and has ten years of experience in theater advertising and promotion, plus two years of management experience in the public relations field.

Anne Yumi Kobori+ Education Program Manager

Anne is an actor, costume designer, playwright, and teaching artist. She has acted with SF Shakes, Silicon Valley Shakespeare, Arabian Shakespeare Festival, Amios ShotzSF, Woman's Will, Bay Area Children's Theatre, and Palo Alto Players. A Resident Artist with SF Shakes, she has worked for them in the Bay Area Shakespeare Camps, Midnight Shakespeare, and Tailor-Made Residencies, and costumed Shakespeare on Tour’s As You Like It and Hamlet. Anne is also Artistic Director of UTOPIA Theatre Project, which she founded to support emerging artists in producing theatre which inspires social change and actor-audience connection. BA Theatre Arts, Santa Clara University.

Neal Ormond Technical Director

Neal joined SF Shakes in 2017 as our first full-time technical director and manages all things tech, including set design, graphic design, fabrication, paint, transportation, and installation for SF Shakes and several of our partner organizations. He also dabbles in lighting and sound and coordinates the infrastructure of our outdoor shows. Prior to this he spent 4 years in the advertising world as Manager of Art & Technology at Publicis, though the majority of his career has been spent as an independent designer/builder, recklessly pursuing and combining the realms of mobile architecture, pyrotechnics, electric vehicles, lighting and sound design, robotics, and graphic and web design. He holds a B.A. in Design from Stanford University. Recent intelligence suggests that he may currently be developing an autonomous, 50-foot-tall, fire-breathing, disco-dancing likeness of William Shakespeare . . .

Karen Schleifer* Production and Stage Manager

Former child performer (Kate in the original Broadway production of Annie,) Karen Schleifer is a recording artist who is a bicoastal collaborator working in the NY/L.A/SF markets since 1996. She is now blazing a new trail for herself as a sought-after AEA SM. She's been blessed with some extraordinary life experiences: attending Eartha Kitt's 50th birthday party at Studio 54 - at the age of 9; directing L.A.'s drive-in drama, Mayhem at Mayfield Mall, a production featured in People Magazine in which audiences experienced a live theater performance from their car; worked for Madonna at Maverick Records; played original music all over the world with her band, Shotgun Curly; served as PSM for Laguna Playhouse's Driving Miss Daisy starring the legendary Michael Learned; and just this past May 2019, relocated with her family to the Bay Area for the current role - created for her by the SF Shakespeare Festival. She is grateful to be a part of an organization that makes art accessible to all and that educates and mentors young humans through the arts. A Staten Island native, she is proud of her NYC public school education and holds a B.A. in Literature from SUNY Purchase. She’s a proud member of AEA/SAG-AFTRA/SMA. For all info, go to https://www.curlykaren.com

Edmund Campos Communication Specialist

Before becoming the Communication Specialist for SFShakes, Edmund taught English Renaissance Literature in colleges and universities around the country. (He has lived and taught in Philadelphia, Chicago, Boston, Orlando, and more!) He received a PhD in Comparative Literature from Stanford University in 2000 and a certificate in Nonprofit Leadership from Wheelock College in 2017. He was born and raised in California and is happy to be back in his home state working for an organization that promotes the Humanities. Joining the team at the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival has allowed him to merge his interests in Renaissance arts and culture, education, and the common good.